Unfortunately for the seniors on the volleyball team, their careers ended at home with two loses this past weekend. The Bulls fell in their last two home matches of the season, both against Mid-American Conference opponents.
On Friday night, the Eastern Michigan Eagles defeated the Bulls in four games.
In the first game, the Eagles (9-14, 3-8 MAC) held a slight advantage at 11-7 before the Bulls (13-16, 2-10) won three straight points to pull within one. However, this was as close as the Bulls would get. Eastern Michigan went on to take game one 30-23, as EMU won the last five points.
In game two, Buffalo trailed 25-20 when Bulls' head coach Jim Lodes called a time out. The Bulls rode the serves of junior Lizaiha Garcia and senior Nikki Morzenti to take the lead at 27-26. Sophomore Sarah Streib served to win the last few points and the game for Buffalo, 30-27.
The third game was close the entire way. Buffalo led 27-26 late in the game, but the Eagles fought back to win, 30-28.
The Bulls led 14-12 when a side-out gave the Eagles the serve trailing by one. Ashley Cudney took control and helped the Eagles win the next eight points. She had two service aces during that span. Eastern Michigan was able to hold on for the victory in the fourth and final game, 30-26.
Despite the loss, the Bulls out-hit Eastern Michigan, .214 to .212.
"(Sophomore) Alyssa Fitchette hit .375 and I think that's awesome," Lodes said. "I wish we could get her more swings. I think that Nikki Morzenti did a pretty good job when the whole gym knew she was getting the ball to still hit .321."
The Eagles seemed to have a strategy throughout the match where they would often hit the ball lightly over the net to the middle of the floor.
"It worked awesome against us," Lodes said. "That's one or two peoples' ball and we didn't fight like heck to get it and that's disappointing."
The Bulls hoped to rebound the following night, against the Central Michigan Chippewas (17-8, 7-5).
Central Michigan took charge early in the first game. They led 15-8 when Buffalo called a time-out. After the break, the Bulls came back playing stronger. However, the deficit was too great to overcome. The Chippewas took game one, 30-28.
The Bulls had a strong opening to the second game, as they rushed out to a 6-2 before the Chippewas called time-out. Central Michigan came within one, but Buffalo held on for the game, 30-24.
The final two games were dominated by Central Michigan. They built double digit leads at points during both games. The Chippewas won game three 30-15 and game four 30-22.
Central Michigan held the advantage in the attack as CMU out hit the Bulls .256 to .138. Alison Baker led the Chippewas, as she hit .350. Fitchette hit .500 to lead the Bulls.
The three seniors for the Bulls, Brandie Clark, Jenna Map?(c) and Morzenti, were honored with a ceremony before the match. They were given roses as their families joined them on the floor.
"I've had such a great experience," Clark said. "It's really sad for me to be moving on. We've been through so much and it's just really hard to think that we're done."
After the match, the fans shouted, "Thank you, seniors!"
"The chanting at the end was awesome," Clark said. "We had great support. Thanks to all the fans this year. This has been the best support in my four years here."
The loss was the sixth straight for the Bulls. Lodes hoped to see improvements in the confidence of the team.
"We've got to do things like compete harder, believe in what we're doing and fight from the beginning of the game all the way through," Lodes said. "There's a level of consistentcy competing every day that we need to bring."
Lodes also stated that he planned on working with the team to improve a few other aspects of the game.
"We need more defense and ball control out of everybody," Lodes said. "If we don't get it, we're going to have trouble competing in the MAC."
The Bulls have four regular season games on the road before the MAC Tournament. Their next game is scheduled for Friday at Toledo. The start time is 7 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
